Liberal

Quote of the Day

“As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.”

― George Washington: "Letter from George Washington to the Roman Catholics in the United States," May 15th 1790

Let's not forget:

Your love of liberty - your respect for the laws - your habits of industry - and your practice of the moral and religious obligations, are the strongest claims to national and individual happiness.

--George Washington, letter to the Residents of Boston, October 27, 1789

Large US Cities on the Liberal/Conservative Spectrum

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Data apparently based on city policies, not on population surveys, from this study, via BoingBoing.

Quote of the day

"A Republican doesn't care if it doesn't affect them. And a Democrat cares even if will never affect them."

Being a "liberal" isn't as bad as the alternative...

This goes to the reality challenged right thing...

H/T to artist Paul Kinsella. and Tumblr's MemeGOP http://bit.ly/1toz25u

What Is a Liberal?

Conservative = Republican = Pro-Gun

Gallup

Alabama, North Dakota, and Wyoming were the most conservative states in the union in 2012, with between 49% and 50% of residents in each identifying their ideology as conservative. Residents of the District of Columbia were by far the most likely to identify as liberal (41%), followed by Massachusetts (31%), Oregon, and Vermont (each at 29% liberal).
The general rule that conservative = pro-gun is perfectly illustrated in the 10 most conservative. The opposite list includes some anomalies like Washington and Vermont, but overall we can continue to say conservative = Republican = pro-gun and liberal = Democrat = pro-gun-control.

Another thing to notice is the conservative states are extremely conservative while the liberal ones aren't so much so.

What do you think?

What is a Liberal?

The Spirit of the American Revolution

I hate to bust your bubble, but it was pretty lefty.

For example. the Tea Party has laid its claim on the founding period, and to a great extent that claim is indeed an economic and financial one. Casting the modern welfare state as a form of tyranny, in large part because of what they see as its excessive taxation, Tea Partiers invoke the famous American resistance to Parliament’s efforts to raise a revenue in the colonies without the consent traditionally given by representation. Seeing founding-generation American patriots as unified against British taxation (and frequently misrepresenting the politics even of the elites they invoke), the Tea Party defines its own anti-government, anti-tax values as essential to American identity.

The Tea Party thus edits out an alternative view of government that prevailed among the ordinary 18th-century Americans who were all-important to achieving independence. Those Americans opposed elites epitomized by the Boston merchant class, which the Tea Party is so strongly allied. The internal struggle for American equality was as important to the founding as the high-Whig resistance to England, but the Tea Party can’t deal with the populist leaders and militia rank-and-file who wrote the socially radical 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution, or the Shaysites of Massachusetts who marched on the state armory, or the so-called whiskey rebels who inspired federal occupation of western Pennsylvania. American Revolutionary patriots all, those democratic-finance leaders had ideas about government’s role in ensuring economic equality that prefigured programs of the 19th-century Populists and the 20th-century New Dealers, the very programs the Tea Party wants to dismantle. Tea Party history therefore has to expunge the welfare state’s roots in America’s founding.

Additionally, the working-class movement seeking economic equality in 1776 Philadelphia became key to declaring American independence. Ignored by many liberal and conservative historians alike, and therefore largely forgotten (the only big name involved is Thomas Paine), those populists allied themselves with decidedly un-populist founders like John Adams and Samuel Adams, who favored American independence. Encouraged by the Adamses, a local militia of populist radicals overthrew the anti-independence government of Pennsylvania. That uprising enabled the decisive vote for American independence in Congress on July 2.

The Pennsylvania populists smashed the ancient Whig connection between property and representation once independence was declared (one of the principles the war with England was being fought to uphold). The Adamses and the populists had been using each other for separate ends. Suddenly, free white men with no property could not only vote in Pennsylvania, but also (and this really nauseated John Adams) hold elected office. New assemblymen included a weaver and a small farmer. They worked, with some success, to pass anti-monopoly laws, take bank charters back from financiers, issue paper money for foreclosure relief, and tax progressively.

Wow, the Revolutionary War Militia were lefties!

As I like to point out, "Tory" means "conservative" in other English Speaking Countries.

So, remember, that Shays' Peasant Revolt was a major reason for the adoption of the Constitution.

Of course, if Bill Hogeland were here I am sure he would argue about how influential the populists were or how much they influenced the Revolutionary Spirit. Still, would the revolution have succeeded without popular support and the granting of economic equality?

See also William Hogeland's

• Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1 – July 4, 1776
• The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America’s Newfound Sovereignty
• Inventing American History
• Steven Rosswurm's Arms, Country, and Class: The Philadelphia Militia and the 'Lower Sort' during the American Revolution (ISBN: 978-0813514727)
  

Bill Maher Advises Obama

via The Immoral Minority




Bill Maher is a liberal. In this interview he made a very funny joke referring to Obama and the Republicans.

He will never pry their irrational fears from their cold dead minds.

Now this is quite obviously a take off on the famous Charlton Heston remark at the NRA convention in May 2000, which has become more than a slogan to the pro-gun crowd. It's a rallying cry.

For Maher the obvious association is between the gun-rights crowd and the conservative Republicans.  On the Jay Leno Show everyone seemed to understand it that way. This is why I find it so surprising that on supposedly liberal sites there are so many folks spouting the same inlfated and blustering rhetoric as the righties.

My explanation is that among the 80 million or so gun owners, many of whom are completely apathetic and some of whom actually agree with the gun control folks, there is a fringe element called "gun-rights advocates."

Within that fringe group there's another very small but apparently very vocal group which is "liberal gun-rights activists."  A fringe group within a fringe group.

No wonder they get so nasty when riled. They're such a minority they hardly exist, their voice is practically inaudible.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Conservative or Liberal?

I mentioned this post over at Opinione in my previous post, but feel it deserves special mention on its own.

Opinione discusses how the terms liberal and conservative have different meanings depending one where one is in the world. He also points out that: "Looking at Barack Obama from a European perspective, the only issue Obama is considered a liberal on is the support and endorsement of liberalism as an economic model and his liberal support of continuing the perpetual use of military power."

Opinione also says that "After spending a considerable amount of time of living in Italy, it is safe to say that even the most liberal American politician would be a candidate from the conservative polity party of Silvio Berlusconi in Italy or the political party of Pier Ferdinando Casini and the Union of Christian Democrats." One doesn't need to go to Italy or other Continental European country to see that the US is far more right wing than Europe. One can go to The United Kingdom to see that even the Conservatives would seem liberal by US standards.

I have to admit that I find it amusing at the misuse of the term "liberal" in US politics. Even more amusing is the abuse of the term "socialism". Fortunately, it is quite easy to get the American public to work against their own self interests.

Liberal vs. Conservative

via Liberality.

Rep. Alan Grayson's Close Call

CNN reports on the recent events in the African country of Niger while Rep. Grayson was visiting.

Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Florida, narrowly escaped harm earlier this week after being caught up in a military coup in the African country of Niger.

Grayson's press secretary, Todd Jurkowski, confirmed to CNN that Grayson was close to the action. "He heard the gunshots. They were literally in the building next door."

The outspoken congressman was in Niger as part of a congressional delegation focused on science, technology and humanitarian relief, according to Jurkowski. When the situation began to unravel, Grayson was taken to the residence of the United States Ambassador to Niger, where he was placed under armed protection.

On Thursday, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State P.J. Crowley told reporters the U.S. Embassy was monitoring the situation and confirmed Grayson was safe at the embassy. Later that night, a Niger military official announced the country's constitution has been suspended.

Grayson has since traveled to the neighboring country of Burkina Faso, and is scheduled to return to the United States Friday evening.

The comments at the end of the CNN story perfectly describe the different ways to see this.

An anonymous commenter said, "Why was Grayson running around on junkets when we all know that we need to control our spending. His job is to represent Florida, not Niger."

Brian from N.J. said, "This is one great American! And I just LOVE that all of you tea-bagging bigots hate him soooooooo much!!!! JUST PROVES HE'S DOING EVERYTHING RIGHT."

What's your opinion? I agree with Brian. Isn't it important for Congressmen to travel in order to better understand the issues? Is the expense of these "junkets" so great that we need to worry about it?

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Tulsa Oklahoma Liberal Radio

About.com reports on a frightening incident that took place in Tulsa.

Some guy with a sawed-off shotgun entered KBEZ's building in Tulsa, Oklahoma demanding to speak with radio personality, Carly Rush. 92.9 KBEZ plays "Today's Variety and Yesterday's Favorites!". Rush is co host on the Steve & Carly in the Mornings show and also is on solo from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.

Thanks to the quick actions of a secretary who left the room and called police, 58-year-old Barry Styles was taken into custody, but not until he was shot three times after brandishing the gun to responding police.

Several charges are pending against Styles including possession of a sawed-off shotgun and reckless conduct with a firearm.

I wondered when's the last time an armed lefty tried to kill one of the conservative talk show personalities. I believe, except for a brief period in the 1960s, this type of thing is the exclusive bailiwick of the right.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

The Right-Wing Smear Campaign

CNSnews.com reports on the FCC official who spoke out about the tactics of the right-wing.

Mark Lloyd, the chief diversity officer and associate counsel at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), says he is not carrying out a “secret plot funded by George Soros” aimed at getting rid of conservative talk-show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

Lloyd, the keynote speaker at a Monday forum sponsored by the Media Access Project (MAP), also said that there was a “right-wing smear campaign” against him.

Well, I don't think he's the only one. But, do you think there's a difference between the way the conservatives do this and the way the liberals do?

“Andy Schwartzman [president and CEO of MAP] was the first to warn me about an obscure, right-wing blog that was distorting my views about the First Amendment,” Lloyd said. “The blog continued and spread different exaggerations and distortions.”

“Those were picked up by radio and cable and then YouTube, Facebook, and Wikipedia,” said Lloyd, and “then by so-called news services and newspapers, the National Rifle Association and other association news letters, e-mail blasts from church groups and then on to certain public officials.”

That does seem like a perfect description of the way they do it. What's your opinion? Is this just political activism at work? Is this just what everyone does to their opponents? Or do you think this mechanism so popular with the right sometimes goes too far?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Conservative or Liberal; Right or Left

The L.A. Times has a wonderful article on the idea that people are pre-disposed genetically to be conservative or liberal. At first it sounds a little crazy, but the more I read, the more I thought they were talking about me.

They found to their surprise that opinions on such contentious subjects as gun control, pacifism and capital punishment are strongly associated with physiological traits that are probably present at birth.

But then I noticed that the experiment included 46 subjects. It reminded me of something I've been admonished about on this blog. I took my own individual gun experiences and tried to extrapolate a general theory from them. Of course that's a faulty proposition, or at least it's likely to be. The same problem may exist in this case.

As I read more, though, I realized the experiment was a truly incisive glimpse into the differences between conservatives and liberals. What could be more irrefutable than eye blinks?

In a second experiment, researchers measured eye blinks -- another indicator of fear -- as subjects responded to sudden blasts of noise.

People with strongly conservative views were three times more fearful than staunch liberals after the effects of gender, age, income and education were factored out.

I'm pretty much ready to write this one off as another kooky idea to come out of California. But, I do like this idea:

Fowler said the study added to the growing research suggesting that over millions of years, humans have developed two cognitive styles -- conservative and liberal. Cautious conservatives prevented societies from taking undue risks, while more flexible liberals fostered cooperation.

"For the species to survive, you need both," he said.

What's your opinion? Feel free to leave a comment.